It took the BET Awards to bring me back to full on soapbox mode and thanks to user Alisvideo over at Dailymotion.com for putting the video up so quick so that I could have visual for my blogging. Well I, along with everyone else in America probably, was expecting to see Usher joined on stage by Beyonce and Lil Wayne to perform the hit remix of “Love in Da Club”…no dice. We had to endure four or five minutes of Usher sliding around the stage doing what he always does best…dancing his ass off but really I was expecting the collaboration or at least the new song “Moving Mountains”.

Kobe Bryant won Best Male Athlete but wasn’t there to collect his award. Seriously, why do they keep giving him shit…he never shows up to receive it…didn’t he say he wasn’t black or couldn’t relate to black people(lol). Take the hint, You people stop giving that man awards

Jezzy came out to perform and was OVERSHADOWED by Kayne West on his own damn song…what’s up with that? Let’s just say, if he’s the snowman then the heat from Kanye’s performance melted his ass.

THE OH MY GOD…NO THEY DIDN’T moment happened when Keysha Cole’s mama, Frankie, and sister, Nephi, did the pre-commercial announcement telling everyone to call in and vote for the Viewer’s Choice Award. Nephi was literally about to fall out of the top of her dress. Seriously, it was about to be a full on frontal, while Frankie, who always appears half in the bag, was her signature rowdy self as she announced that her baby would be performing next but what mama wouldn’t be excited, I guess….

…speaking of half in the damn bag, what the hell was going on with Keysha because her performance was extremely lacking. I think she was having mic issues because she looked as if she were singing her little heart out but the volume just wasn’t there, as she stood there stood in her prom dress. But wait it turns into a skanky white short set for her performance of her hit “Let It Go”. She was hopping around the stage in stiletto boots about to trip over herself. Who didn’t see the Lil’ Kim coming…and what’s up with Lil Kim sporting the Kim Kardashian hips. Kim really should have grabbed one size bigger in the pants department. It looked like those spandex jeans were going to roll right off her fat ass and someone please tell her to keep her belly covered. She too old and too chubby for that shit. She can officially go back to calling herself “Big Mama” because that name would definitely stick to her fat ass now. On a good note for Lil Kim, she finally got her nose fixed and it looks spectacular!

Ne-yo gave his best Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal impression performing his new hit song “Closer”…but what else is new? BEST FEMALE HIP HOP ARTIST went to Missy who won and didn’t even show up! After BET had to do away with the category in 2007 due to lack of candidates, you’d think any female nominated would have shown up just in support of the category..but I’ve seen Missy at those “making of” specials and she’s always toasted. IT’S OFFICIAL!!! The BET awards are a J.O.K.E. The Dream won for Best New Artist…he didn’t even show up. If you don’t show up, then you should automatically lose you award. But what does that say about an award show when have of the folks getting awards don’t even bother to show up. You don’t see that shit happening at the MTV Awards.

Alicia Keys performed her latest song “Teenage Love Affair”. She sounded alot like an old school Michael Jackson from his Jackson 5 days. Her hips are as wide as all outdoors but she looked good even though her wig was a little to 1980’s for me. Halfway through her set she introduced a very “healthy” SWV by singing the first verse of their song “Weak” while they finished up their own hit before exiting the stage and making way for 90’s power divas En Vogue who still looked great(some groups age better than others). TLC, sporting those motherhood hips, joined Alicia to do a version of their hit Waterfalls, which brought all of our ladies from our favorite girls groups of the 1990s on stage for a finale of swollen hips and stretched vocals. It was great.

Nicey Nash brought this seasons newest accessory…white kids. Go out and get yourself one today! Nicey also introduced the Best Male Hip Hop Artist…Kanye West who in true hip hop fashion brought Lil Wayne to the stage and congratulated his biggest competition for selling a million plus albums his first week out. You could tell that even Kayne felt like Wayne should have won that award…and he should have, hands down, lol.

T-Pain paid a tribute to Bootsie…not really but he was dressed like him as he performed a tribute to himself, joined by everyone from Flo-Rida to Rick Ross to Khalid to Big Boy to Ludacris to perform a few of the hit songs he cameoed on this past year. All of this perform in front of a carnival background to prove that he’s a sho ’nuff clown.

Big surprise(not) that UGK won Best Video Award for Int’l Players Anthem. What kind of award show wouldn’t pay respects by giving the deceased artist an award? Not BET…they keep it real or at least they try to.

Not to be outdone, Chris Brown, hit the stage to sing his hit “With You”. He also won the award for Best Male Artist. He looks as if he’s in need of a serious haircut. The curly Nino Brown look isn’t working for me or him. The blogs will be buzzing tomorrow fueled by rumors about him and the surprisingly limber…well it’s not that surprising Ciara, but I can hear the talk of romance due to their sexy performance. Please bloggers it was just a dance and Rihanna look just as happy about the performance as Beyonce looked at the MTV awards when she pulled Jay-Z up on stage with her.

Lifetime Achievement Award went to Al Green. Tribute sang by Jill Scott singing “Still in Love”, Anthony Hamilton singing “Tired of Being Alone”, and Maxwell. Of course, Al Green got on stage and turned it out. I think he had a flashback of the 70s when he started singing “Let’s Stay Together” and “Love and Happiness”.

Lil Wayne after selling a million plus albums finally won the Viewer’s Choice Award. In all fairness, you couldn’t expect Wayne to really win anything. The man can’t drop a platinum album the week before an award show and think he’s gonna get a trophy. It’s not fair to the artist who really had to grind all year for that Platinum status. He gave a hot performance though…rapping like his freedom depended on it and in a couple of months it will.

Rihanna murdered her own hit (as usual) “Take A Bow”. She’s lucky that she’s beautiful with a hot body because she would NOT make it on talent alone. A good look for her, her rumored boyfriend Chris Brown sang along and knew all of the words….awwww how cute. Take that gossip bloggers, lol.

I appreciate that Nelly never wears a shirt. He was introduced by his girlfriend Ashanti. D.L. Hughley, who hosted, joked that he reads Mediatakeout too and wanted to know if “it” was true. Ashanti’s response: “I traded for something else because I got that good, good”. What the hell does that mean and better yet who the fuck cares? Nelly and Jermaine Dupri performed Nelly’s song “Stepped on My Js” and just in case you didn’t get enough of Ciara with Chris Brown, she was back with her legs greased up and spine bending for her cameo in the song. Fergie came out to help Nelly perform their song “Where My Party People At”.

BET premeired its annual Rip The Runway fashion show last night(March 4, 2008) with Nelly and Lauren London acting as co-host while Diddy served as Executive producers (reminding us as various intervals of the show of the fact that he was in fact the shows executive producer). You know, I try to support BET but I really think that having a live act like Missy, who strives to put on an energy filled performance every time she hits the stage, is not a good look. It makes for too much going on at once and makes it hard to focus on the fashions on the runway.

During Missy’s set I couldn’t tell who was a model and who was a dancer. I’m sure this makes for an exciting show if your are in the audience but as a television performance it sucks. This is the same reason why I never watch Fashion Rocks.

Rich and Infamous by Snoop

Coco Ri by Shawnte Broadus

Rich and Infamous

Snoop Dogg and his Boss Lady premiered their new clothing lines Young and Infamous and Coco Ri, with Snoop performing in the background where so that the clothes could actually be seen. Of course his models could have used the distraction to take away from the terrible walks they were displaying on the runway. BET does give a big girl a chance to strut it out on the runway and that’s always a plus.

Lauren London in Zac Posen with co-host Nelly

In BET’s attempt to diversify their annual Rip the Runway show it featured designs by Zac Posen and I’m sure this wil be the only chance a black model gets to rock any of his gear on a runway anywhere. N.E.R.D provided music for these models to sashay to .

Puff…P. Diddy…Diddy…Sean John….one of those people served as executive producer and showcased his line of men’s wear and introduce the faces of women’s line Lauren London and Cassie. I’m glad Cassie caught on to the hint about not being able to sing and pick a profession that requires that she keep her mouth shut. Diddy’s Bad Boy artist Day 26 performed along with Cheri Dennis of Timberland fame.

While Monif C and Sixx Foota strolled down the runway to the sounds of Webbie’s runaway hit I.N.D.E.P.E.N.D.E.N.T, Nelly’s models strutted to the tune of Flo Rida and T-Pain’s “Get Lo” or whatever. I hate that song. Diddy seemed more like the host than the executive producer but other than that I can’t say that I saw anything on the runway that made me want to run out and buy it.

Well, I watched the BET Awards 2007 and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Usually, the BET Awards are only good for one or two performances and they move soooo slow, but those are just some of the things that come along with an Award show that is still in it’s infancy. This show was really very good and I managed to watch the entire show. I never get into who won what because these shows are set up to give awards to whomever is the hottest thing going at the time.

Jennifer Hudson and Jennifer Holiday Duet

The show started out on a very HIGH note with the vocal acrobatics of Jennifer Hudson and Jennifer Holiday singing “And I’m telling you I’m not going” as a duet. It sounded like church…a black church and though it was a little bit over the top for me, it was still of very moving performance. Both ladies showcased why there has been so much praise over their vocal talents in singing this particular song.

Beyonce

Monique repeated her rendition of Beyonce this year bringing her fellow big girls on stage to break it down to Beyonce’s “Deja Vue”. She even got LL Cool J to remove her heel…and what lady wouldn’t want that. Beyonce stayed innovative with her entrance as a robot and it created an instant buzz in the after show. I accredit to her star status because besides the entrance, she didn’t do anything different from the video for the song “Get Me Bodied” which is the song that she performed. I did like that she brought Monique out on the stage with her to dance a lil’ bit.

Kelly Rowland

Beyonce’s performance and the introduction of Ms. Kelly Rowland ran concurrently. Kelly really let her sexy out tonight and with her perfect body and legs that seem to go on forever she gave her best performance with Eve of her song “Like This” that I’ve seen to date. Kelly and Beyonce were joined by Solange, Beyonce’s little sister, and fellow Destiny’s Child member Michelle.

Diddy, Keisha Cole and Lil’ Kim

Let me say, I am not a Puff Daddy…excuse me, Diddy fan. He and Keisha Cole were joined on stage by Lil’ Kim to perform Diddy’s “Last Night”. The audience were very excited to have Lil’ Kim on the stage performing. Keisha’s vocals were perfect and I was pleasantly surprised that Diddy’s performance actually warranted the applause he received.

Ne-yo

Ne-yo put on a good show visually with his song “Because of You” but his singing was really lacking. He was joined on stage by Fabolous (I know he spells it like that for trademarking reasons but I hate that spelling) for the song “You Make Me Better”.

T.I.

T.I.’s performance was good also, but he’s always a crowd mover. He give more energy than most rappers now and days and it’s always funny to watch him talk to himself at the beginning of his performance. I was glad to see him apologized for his behavior earlier in the week (it was rumored that he punched Ludacris’ s manager Chaka Zulu earlier in the week at a charity event). It showed how much of a man he really is.

Gerald Levert Tribute

The Gerald Levert tribute by Eddie Levert, Pattie LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Yolanda Adams started out very beautiful, but turned into another vocal acrobatics show starring Pattie LaBelle. The idea was beautiful and that was enough to make keep me tuned in. Public Enemy’s tribute to James Brown was more of a tribute to Public Enemy. They did various old Public Enemy hits and only one James Brown song “I’m Black and I’m Proud’. I guess that they’ve sampled so much of his music that any of their songs really are a tribute to James Brown.

Ciara
Ciara gave a good performance, as usual her vocals weren’t as good as her dancing, but she really makes you want to get and “try” some of her moves, but then reality sinks in and you realize…hey this girl is in phenomenal shape. I wonder if the rumors about she and 50 are true. Probably not, besides if it is and they want to keep that secret who am I to complain.

Robin Thicke

Robin Thicke, a fan favorite, performed his hit “Lost Without You”. He maintain that soft high pitch sound and manage to get a little dancing in during the bridge

50 cents

Last but not least in the performance categories, Fifty cents…Curtis Jackson, as he’s known by the government, gave the wackest performance of the night. For almost a month BET’s been running this promotion featuring 50 in where the viewers at home vote by internet or via text message for which song he’d perform at the award show. The public chose “Amusement Park” and visually the stage was set for an entertaining performance. That is until 50 came out at and walked around the stage and in the audience through the entire first verse just holding his mic. His hype man didn’t know what to do and just continued calling his name, in hopes that 50 would start the performance. It is rumored that BET asked him not to perform the first verse, but if that true couldn’t he have cleaned up the verse or written a whole new one. He is supposed to be a rapper…isn’t he. He sucked! Plain and simple.

The Diana Ross Tribute

The show paid tribute Gerald Levert and Jame Brown, but the Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Diana Ross. Her life was celebrated through her songs being sung by Chaka Khan, Erykah Bahdu and Stevie Wonder. Don Cheadle was given the Humanitarian award for his work in bringing awareness to Darfur. He seemed in just as much disbelief of receiving an award as Oscar Winning American dreamgirl, Jennifer Hudson, who continuously remark on her disbelief of receiving an award when she doesn’t even have an album out. If you missed the show don’t worry, I’m sure BET will be showing it over and over and over and over….